Furniture construction



Oct. 23, 1951 D. A. WALLANCE 2,572,081

FURNITURE CONSTRUCTION Filed April 25, 1947 2a //0 W F7 33 /e 24 I L n.

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Donald A. Wallance, New York, N. Y.

Application April 23, 1947, Serial No. 743,324

4 Claims.

(Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) The invention described herein, if patented, may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to furniture construction, and more particularly to furniture having a self-sustained skeleton frame carrying individually removable panels which conceal the frame from view.

In furniture, particularly in cabinet or desktype furniture, of conventional construction, frame members areprovided which carry panels, drawers, a top, legs, and other well-known parts of an article of furniture. In that type of construction the designer must take into consideration the appearance of the frame in addition to its structural strength. Also, in furniture construction wherein the frame is visible from the outside, it is necessary to employ a wooden frame in the construction of a wooden item of furniture, as a visible metal frame with wooden panels would generally be considered to present an awkward appearance. This consideration compels the furniture designer to forego the advantages of the great strength and favorable weight-tostrength relationship characteristic of a metal frame. Also, wooden panels connected to a conventional wooden frame are not easily disassembled therefrom; consequently, conventional wooden furniture must be shipped whole as a heavy item.

Military and other personnel whose household goods must stand repeated moves over long distances need items of furniture of sturdy construction and comparatively light weight, but without sacrificing attractiveness of appearance. To answer this need, I have provided a new type of furniture construction utilizing a wholly concealed metal frame carrying individually removable panels which can be disassembled for shipment and reassembled at the place of destination.

is a furniture construction of light weight, great strength, and pleasing appearance, wherein a of furniture equipped with drawers slidable in In case any of the panels are damaged in shipment, replacement panels of standardized size may be substituted for them without impairing the utility or appearance of the article of furniture. The frame itself may be, but need n ot be, of the knock-down type; while in the following description of a preferred embodiment of my invention I disclose a permanently assembled frame, it will be understood that a knock-down frame whose individual parts are assemblable into a self-sustained structure is suitable for furniture construction in accordance with my in vention and thus is within its scope.

Accordingly, one of the objects of my invention guides carried by a frame which is Wholly concealed when the drawers are closed.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will become more fully apparent as the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof proceeds in connection with the appended drawings, wherein:

Fig. l is an exploded perspective viewof an article of furniture in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged section along lines 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view through an upright frame member, taken along lines 33 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a section view of a girder, taken along lines 4'4 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 5 is a front elevation of an assembled furniture cabinet in accordance with my invention.

More particularly, reference numeral l0 denotes a self-sustained skeleton frame, which I prefer to make of metal structural members described hereinafter in greater detail; however, other structural materials, such as wood or plastics, are not excluded from my contemplation. As has been mentioned, frame [0 may be, but need not be, of the knock-down type. It essentially consists of upright members or posts I I, l2, l3, l4, whose top ends are connected by a rectangular arrangement of girders I5, [6, ll, and i8, and whose bottom ends are connected by a rectangular arrangement of girders I9, 20, 2|, and 22. Girders 15 to 22 are angle irons; which term I wish to be understood to cover all structural materials, whether of iron or not, having two flanges edgewise joined at an angle, as shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings. Upright posts or 001- umns II to l4 may likewise be angle irons; however, particularly in items of furniture equipped with drawers, I prefer them to be of a somewhat more complex structure, namely, that of a channel iron (which term of course is not to be understood to be limited to ferrous structural material) having a web 23, a wide flange E i, and a narrow flange 25, as shown in Figure 3 of the drawings.

In addition to the upright members and girder members of frame It, there are provided horizontal drawer guides 26 of channel cross-section and drawer supports 27, which may be of any suitable cross-section but which I prefer to make of channel cross-section which is characterized by great compressive and shearing strength in relation to its weight. These drawer guides and, drawer supports also act as internal braces for frame IB, thus still further increasingits strength.

Top panel 28 is removably connected to the horizontal flanges of girders to H3, e.'g.,"b'y wood screws (not shown) inserted through spaced perforations in the flanges. Similarly, bottom panel 29 is attached to thehoriaontal flanges of the bottom girders 18 to 22. Side panels 30 and ti are suitably connected to the outer faces of upright posts H to M, e. g., by inserting wood screws 32 through spaced perforations in the wide flange 2c of each channel-iron post near its free edge; the narrow width of the other flange 25 affords clearance for the insertion of a screw driver S into the slotted head of the wood screw (see Fig. 2). A back panel 33 may be welded to the webs 23 of rear posts l3 and id, or attached thereto by wood screws (not shown) or similar conventional attachment means in the case of a chest of drawers, the back panel serves no specific function, and may be entirely omitted.

In a chest of drawers constructed in accordance with my invention, a number of drawers is provided, each consisting of a bottom 3d, back 35, and sides 36, 37. Sides 36, 31 carry runners 38, 39, whichslide in drawer guides 26; these drawer guides are carried by the narrow flanges 25 of the upright posts and are disposed out of vertical alignment with the perforations in the Wide flanges 24 of the latter, so as to avoid obstruction of these perforations. Each drawer carries a front panel 40 of at least the width of frame ID and of sufficient height to conceal the vertical frame member (l5 or 21) above the drawer; panel at is preferably of a material matching that of side panel 30, 3|.

Back panel 33 is usually not visible in an article of furniture customarily placed against a wall; consequently, its material is not of importance insofar as the appearance of the assembled article is concerned and in fact may be entirely omitted in a chest of drawers, as has been pointed out. On the other hand, very attractive effects can be accomplished by a furniture designer through the choice of appropriate materials for top panel 28, side panels 38, 3!, and front panel or panels 40. This is also true, although to a lesser extent, of bottom panel 29 which is not as plainly in view as the aforementioned panels. Thus, plywood material creates the appearance of an all-wood article of furniture. The front and side panels can be of greatly reduced thickness, as they do not carry any load; this results in a further saving of weight and cost. Plastic materials may also be chosen for the panels with resulting wholly new effects. Each panel is so dimensioned that an edge abuts against the inner face of an adjacent panel to effect complete concealment of the frame (see Fig. 5).

An article of furniture in accordance with my invention may be equipped with legs 41, having flanges 42 attached to the underside of the bottom panel 29. Flanged tapering hollow legs of circular cross-section, as disclosed in my copending patent application, Serial No. 743,327, Furniture Leg, filed April 23, 1947 (now Patent No. 2,527,603, issued October 31, 1950), are particularly suitable but are by no means the only ones that may be used in connection with such furniture.

' While I have described my new furniture construction in connection with a chestof drawers, it will of course be understood that desks, cabinets with hinged doors, and a great variety of other articles of furniture may be made in accordance with the principles of construction disclosed herein. Modifications of the specific construction of the embodiment disclosed in the above description and appended drawings may of co'ursebe' readily made by the expert by changes of proportions and structural details without departin from the spirit of my invention, and thus remaining within the scope thereof. I thus intend to claim my invention broadly and to be limited only by the appended claims. W

Iclaim: H

1. Furniture comprising a self-sustained skeleton frame having four rigidupright channelshaped corner members, each of said upright corner members having a web, an inwardly facing narrow flange and an outwardly facing wide flange, a plurality of angled top and bottom girders normal to said upright members and interconnecting the ends of said upright members, a p p l and a b ttom panel c nnected o said girders, the wide flanges of said upright members being provided with a plurality of openings, said openings being disposed near the free edges of said wide flanges and clear of said narrow flanges, side panels removably connected to the outer faces of the wide flanges of said upright members by fastening means extending through said openings, side braces carried by the narrow flanges oi said upright members, said side braces being out of vertical alignment with the openings in said wide flanges, and a frontpa'nel movably carried by said frame; said top, bottom, side and front panels being normally in abutting relation so as to conceal said frame.

2. Furniture comprising a self-sustained skeleton frame having four rigid channel-shaped upright corner members, each of said upright members having a web, an inwardly facing narrow flange and an outwardly facing wide flange, a plurality of angle-iron top and bottom girders normal to said upright members and interconnecting the ends of said upright members, a top panel and a bottom panel connected tosaid girders, the wide flanges of said upright members being provided with a plurality of openings, said openings being disposed near the free edges of said wide'flanges and clear of said narrow flanges, side panels re-r movably connected to the outer faces of said wide flanges of said upright members by fastening means extending through saidopenings, front panel supporting means" carried by the narrow flanges of said uprightmembers, said supporting means being out of vertical alignment with the openings in said wide flanges, and a front panel movable relative to saidframe and carried by said supporting means, said top, bottom, side, and front panels being in abutting relation so as to normally conceal said frame.

3. Furniture comprising a top, a self-sustained skeleton frame having four rigid upright chan: nel-shaped corner posts, each of said posts comprising a web, an inwardly facing narrow flange and an outwardly facing wide flange, the wide flanges of said corner posts being provided with a plurality of openings, said openings being disposed near the free edges of said wide flanges and clear of said narrow flanges, and top and botplurality of openings, said openings being distom girders connecting the ends of said posts,

individually removable side panels connected to the outer faces of said wide flanges of said posts by fastening means extending through said openings, drawer supports connected to the narrow flanges of said posts, said drawer supports being out of vertical alignment with the openings in said wide flanges, drawers slidable relative to said supports, and front panels carried by said drawers, said top and side and front panels concealing said skeleton frame from an ordinary angle of observation when said drawers are closed.

4. A self-sustained furniture frame comprising four rigid upright channel-shaped corner posts and top and bottom girders connecting the free ends of said corner posts, each of said corner posts comprising a web, an outwardly facing wide flange and an inwardly facing narrow flange, said wide flanges being provided with a posed near the free edges of said wide flanges and clear of said narrow flanges, and side braces carried by said narrow flanges, said side braces being out of vertical alignment with the openings in said wide flanges; whereby side panels may be removably and interchangeably connected to the outer faces of the wide flanges of said corner posts by fastening means extending through said openings.

DONALD A. WALLANCE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 933,755 Holland Sept. 14, 1909 1,066,165 Tietz July 1, 1913 1,247,712 Ohnstrand Nov. 27, 1917 1,866,174 Richardson July 5, 1932 2,044,166 Hayden June 16, 1936 2,387,506 Freeman Oct. 23, 1945 

